Roundtable Interview With Eric Bana On Hanna

It’s hard to believe that someone with Eric Bana’s build has not had any hand-to-hand combat scenes in his entire career. But that seems to be the case. In some of the promotions that Focus Features have been airing for their latest film Hanna, we have seen Bana actually throw a punch, something movie audiences or fans of his are not normally used to seeing him do. Along with his hand-to-hand combat scenes, Bana talked with us about a couple other things relating to his newest film. Check out the interview below, audio version included at the end of the page.

Bana plays as former secret agent Eric Heller, who is not only hiding in the outskirts of Finland, but also acting as a surrogate father to Hanna (Saorise Ronan), a secret government project that Marissa Weigler (Cate Blanchett) hopes to bury by disposing of those who were connected to the project.

Over the course of the production process, the actor explains how he closes himself off to other scripts and how he puts his mind and entire world into the production process. Bana said that he does not like to be bothered by incoming scripts no matter who they are from or how interesting they may be. This is perhaps one of his best qualities as he will not be distracted by the idea of how he could project off the project or how he could use it to bolster his acting resume. Another way the actor does not distract himself during filming is that he does not do anything during his off time other than spend time on the actual set.

One of the things he was most disappointed about with Hanna is that he could not spend more time with Cate Blanchett. The two share very few scenes together, both of which are very intense and filled with some high octane action. But the actor expressed that during those few scenes he wished that he could spend more time interacting with Blanchett’s character.

Bana did talk about how he survived against the elements with the cold weather not agreeing with his thin Australian blood. During the film the actor had to wear an assortment of skins and furs to keep him warm and set the tone for the realism. In addition to this, the actor had to wear a suit during the evening in Finland. He also explained the beauty of the scenery that the film has and how Finland’s landscape is vast and beautiful.

One of the scenes that will have audiences excited is the one shot take of the fight scene between Heller and secret agents who are sent out to retrieve or kill him. Bana had explained that he was not used to a fight scene like this and the only fight scene he could recall that was like this particular one was the fight scene in Troy. The actor continued with the fact that the area had been closed off for only 45 minutes and during that window of time they took between five or six takes before going with the second one.

I don’t want to spoil anymore of the interview as it was quite interesting so take a listen below and enjoy!

Be sure to check out our Hanna review, our interview with director Joe Wright and our interview with star Saoirse Ronan.

Unfortunately, the audio file for this interview has been removed. Sorry for any inconvenience that this may cause.